parison with the industry and technology that had the most direct impact, not on the battlefield but behind it. The North had a very much more extensive rail network, with not quite two and a half times as much rail mileage as the South. The Union could employ this network to move troops and materials to where they were needed; moreover, it had the basic industrial capacity to sustain and enlarge its rail network under the stress of war. In contrast, the railroad network of the South, limited to begin with, could not sustain itself in the face of either destruction at the hands of Union raiders, or--more important in the long run--the daily wear and tear of wartime operation. By the later years of the war, the South's railroads were essentially useless, while the North was able to extend its railheads at need to meet the requirements of its forces.
Even before the South's railroads were worn down, this difference of degree was sufficient to be also a difference of kind; the North's rail system was a true network, offering multiple routes between a
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